The Miraidon ex deck received multiple new cards in the Surging Sparks meta to boost its performance. This deck runs multiple Lighting-type Pokemon that can act as massive damage dealers and pose a threat to the opponent.
Miraidon‘s performance in the Sacramento Regional definitely put Miraidon back on the map for many players. Two Miraidon ex players ended up facing each other in the finals, and this guide will cover the first-place list.
Miraidon Decklist
Pokémon: 15
2 Miraidon ex SVI 81
2 Iron Hands ex PAR 70
1 Raikou V BRS 48
1 Raichu V BRS 45
1 Magnemite PAL 65
1 Magneton SSP 59
1 Pikachu ex SSP 57
1 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Mew ex MEW 151
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169
1 Lumineon V BRS 40
1 Iron Bundle PAR 56
Trainer: 28
4 Arven OBF 186
4 Boss's Orders PAL 172
4 Electric Generator SVI 170
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
3 Ultra Ball SVI 196
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
1 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 Bravery Charm PAL 173
1 Rescue Board TEF 159
1 Forest Seal Stone SIT 156
2 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
Energy: 17
16 Lightning Energy SVE 12
1 Double Turbo Energy BRS 151How to Play
Damage Dealers
Miraidon ex is a 220 HP Pokemon with the ability Tandem Unit that searches your deck for 2 Basic Lightning Pokemon and puts them on the Bench. This help you find the Pokemon you need to start setting up your strategy. The Photon Blaster attack deals 220 damage, capable of knocking out targets and netting your Prize Cards. However, when Photon Blaster is activated, you can’t attack with Miraidon on the upcoming turn, so it’s basically sitting there in the Active spot without a purpose.
You’ll have to retreat Miraidon ex and replace it with one of your other attackers so you continue posing a threat to the opponent with your attacks.
Raikou V is another attacker who can carry the game for you. The Lightning Rondo attack deals 20 damage but will gain 20 more damage for each Benched Pokemon on both your and your opponent’s side. So you want to fill up your Bench with Pokemon to pump the Lightning Rondo more and go for a high-damage attack.
Area Zero Underdepths plays into the Raikou V game plan, increasing the number of Pokemon both players can add to the Bench to 8 Pokemon. This helps you deal more damage with Raikou V‘s Lightning Rondo.
For Area Zero Underdepths to activate its effect, you need to have a Terra-type Pokemon in play. So Pikachu ex works perfectly here, a Lightning-type Terra Pokemon that can’t easily be knocked out and will activate Area Zero Underdepths. We won’t use him as an attacker in this list, he’s mainly there for the Area Zero Underdepths synergy.
Other Attackers
With Raichu V‘s Fast Charge, you can activate it if you go first and search your deck for Lightning Energy and attach it to itself. Dynamic Spark deals 60 damage for each Energy you discard from Raichu V. So we want to attach multiple Energy on it and discard just enough to knock out the opponent’s Pokemon.
To easily attach multiple Energy on Raichu V, you’ll use Magneton‘s Overvolt Discharge, allowing you to attach 3 Basic Energy from your Discard pile to your Lightning Pokemon in any way you want.
Lastly, Iron Hands ex is another attacker you’ll want for the Amp Your Very Much attack. It only deals 120 damage, but getting a knockout with this attack will give you an extra Prize Card. This gets you closer to winning the game and additional resources in your hand. Amp You Very Much is expensive to set up, so attaching 1 Double Turbo Energy makes it easier to activate, but you’ll lose 20 damage on it. So you’ll now only deal 100 damage if you use Double Turbo Energy, but it can be enough to knock out many low HP Pokemon, especially if you use Prime Catcher or Boss’s Order to force a low HP Pokemon to the Active spot.
Energy Cards
The list has Lightning Energy to activate our Lightning-type Pokemon attacks. 1 copy of Double Energy Turbo for Iron Hands ex.
Energy Acceleration
Magneton is a Stage 1 Pokemon, so you’ll evolve it from Magnemite. Magneton‘s job is to retrieve 3 Energy cards from the discard pile through Overvolt Discharge and attach them to your Pokemon.
Keep in mind, that when activating Overvolt Discharge, Magneton will get knocked out. This will give your opponent a Prize Card.
Overvolt Discharge is a great tool to get multiple Lightning Energy cards on Raichu V or Iron Hands ex, two Pokemon that require a lot of Energy to work.
Since the list has 16 Lightning Energy, we have high odds of finding at least one through Electric Generator. Electric Generator lets you look at the top 5 cards of your deck and attach up to 2 Basic Lightning Energy cards you find to your Benched Lightning Pokemon.
This will help you accelerate your game plan and get your attacks ready as early as possible.
Easy Returns
Since we can attach Energy cards to our Benched Pokemon, we will need tools to get them to the Active spot and start attacking. The best method is through Latias ex‘s Skyliner ability. Skyliner removes the Retreat cost on your Basic Pokemon, letting you retreat them to the Bench without discarding any Energy. This saves you from attaching an Energy to retreat and is great for Iron Hands ex because of its high retreat cost.
Another method is the Rescue Board, reducing the Retreat cost of the Pokemon it is attached to by 1 less Energy card. Since many of your Pokemon have only 1 Energy Retreat cost, this should be enough to retreat them to the Bench without discarding Energy.
If the Pokemon Rescue Board is attached to has 30 HP or less, the retreat cost will become 0, useful for Iron Hands ex.
Pokemon Draw Value
Squawkabilly’s Squawk and Seize is great for the early game, discarding your hand (which could discard Energy cards) and draws 6 cards.
Lumineon V played on the Bench allows you to activate Luminous Sign to search your deck for a Supporter card and draw it. So you can draw cards like Arven.
Mew ex‘s Restart ability acts as a draw engine, drawing you cards until you have 3 cards in your hand. So if you have a Mew ex on your Bench, you can use up the cards in your hand, drop to below 3 cards, and then draw extra cards to find what you need. Mew ex can also become an attacker with Genome Hacking, copying the opponent’s Active Pokemon’s attack. So this will be dependent on what the Pokemon has in the Active spot, but copying a high-damage attack can knock them out.
Mew ex has no retreat cost, so you can retreat it to the Bench whenever you want and have another Pokemon take its place.
Fezandipti ex can sit on the bench and watch over your Active Pokémon, ready to use its Flip the Script ability when one of your Pokemon is knocked out. The three cards you draw will help find the resources you need to enable your strategy. Fezandipti ex doesn’t need to be on the bench when the knockout happens—you can play it from your hand afterward and still activate Flip the Script to draw cards.
Value Cards
Arven is a great resource card cause it allows you to search and draw an Item and a Pokemon tool card. So cards like Electric Generator, Forest Seal Stone, and Rescue Board are options to draw.
Secret Box lets you discard 3 cards from your hand to search your deck for an Item card, a Pokemon tool card, a Supporter card, and a Stadium card and put them into your hand.
Night Stretcher can put a Pokemon or a Basic Energy card from your discard pile into your hand. Since we have a lot of discard cards and Raichu V‘s Dynamic Spark, Night Stretcher can be useful in this deck.
Forest Steal Stone‘s Star Alcehey ability lets you search your deck for any card you want and add it to your hand. This is a VSTAR Power, so it can only be used when attached to a Pokemon V, even if it is on the Bench, and can only be used once.
Combat Cards
You can use Boss’s Order or Counter Catcher to move a low-health Pokemon to the Active spot, making it easier for you to get a Knock Out over a high-Pokemon or you can knock out a win condition hiding on the Bench.
Also, these cards can move a Pokemon with a high retreat cost to the Active spot, which doesn’t pose much of an offensive threat. This will slow down the opponent’s game plan and buy you enough time to have your win conditions ready. As for Iron Bundle, you can force opponents to switch out their Active Pokemon, moving their win condition out and slowing them down.
You can also move a less threatening Pokemon to the Active spot and slow down the opponent’s aggression, putting them in an awkward spot and forcing them to have an answer to get back their win condition in the Active spot.
Other Cards to Include
Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is a late-game attacker to set up the finishing play with Blood Moon’s 240 damage. 5 Basic Colorless Energy cards are tough to attach on Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, however Seasoned Skill ability drops the cost of Blood Moon by 1 Basic Colorless Energy for each Prize card your opponent has taken. so if you’re down to 1 Prize card, Blood Moon can be activated without any Basic Energy.
Irida searches your deck for Water-type Pokemon and an Item card and adds them to your hand. If you decide to add Irida to the list, you can add cards like Radiant Greninja for more value. With the current list, you can draw Iron Bundle and Lumineon ex.
Super Rod is useful in this list to get back Energy cards or Basic Pokemon you’ve discarded and put them in your deck. You can then search for them and use them to set up your strategy.
